In the wake of a public outcry against Los Angeles billboards and New York taxicab tops advertising the movie Captivity with images of the abduction, torture and death of a young woman, After Dark Films said it will take down the offending ads by 2 p.m. today. After Dark, its theatrical distribution partner Lionsgate Films and the MPAA received a barrage of phone calls objecting to the gratuitous depiction of the film’s star Elisha Cuthbert being tortured and killed.

(click for larger image)

The billboards, first posted March 13, feature four frames with captions above each one. “Abduction” shows Cuthbert with a gloved hand over her face; “Confinement” features the actress behind a chain-link fence with a bloody finger poking through; “Torture” depicts Cuthbert’s face, covered in white gauze, with tubes shoved up her nose; and “Termination” shows her with her head thrown back, seemingly dead.

The ads appeared on 30 Los Angeles-area billboards and 1,400 New York taxi tops.

After Dark said the posting of the billboards was an accident. CEO Courtney Solomon said the wrong files were sent to the printer, who then passed them on to the billboard company without approval from any executives at After Dark. Execs from the indie production company were attending ShoWest in Las Vegas last week and had no idea the wrong billboards were posted until they returned from the convention Thursday to a flood of e-mails and phone calls from angry parents and offended women.

Captivity Poster (Russian) – click for larger image

Blogger Sandra Gibbons said that the billboard was right across the street from an elementary school in Los Angeles.

Captivity opens May 18th, 2007 with a screenplay partially written by Larry Cohen.